David Mach's amazing magazine sculptures are still able to dazzle

Date
27 August 2012

Picture the scene – It’s early afternoon in an LA film producer’s office, all glass tabletops and modern art prints. A struggling screenwriter, dressed shabbily, is casting about for any ideas to engage the bored executive with. “So, err, everyone says print is dead but what about a film set in the near-future where magazines get their revenge on the human race, taking over the world Day of the Triffids style. Revenge for all the recycling and iPad love?” The executive stubs out his cigar slowly. “Name your price.”

That is an imagined scene I’ve just described (I know) but tell me you wouldn’t watch the movie? I like to think the reason David Mach’s extraordinary magazine installations are doing the rounds again has some tenuous link to the ongoing debate about the future of print, but I fear it may just be because they;re so flipping wonderful. Created between the late 1980s and the early 2000s, his work is a triumph of ambition, vision and skilful realisation.

If these are new to you then enjoy, but even if they’re familiar it’s worth reminding yourself of their sheer brilliance.

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David Mach: Like A Virgin, Ujazdowski Castle Center For Contemporary Art, Warsaw (1993)

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David Mach: Adding Fuel to the Fire (install), Metronom Gallery, Barcelona, June (1987)

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David Mach: Adding Fuel to the Fire (install), Metronom Gallery, Barcelona, June (1987)

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David Mach: Adding Fuel to the Fire (install), Metronom Gallery, Barcelona, June (1987)

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David Mach: The Great Outdoors, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, (1988)

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David Mach: Framed, Galerie de La Tour, Amsterdam (1996)

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David Mach: Fuel for the Fire, magazines and furniture, Riverside Studios, London, (1986)

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David Mach: Untitled, Dunlop Gallery, Regina, (1983)

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David Mach: Gridlock, magazines and cars, Galerie IUFM (Confluences), Lyon (2001)

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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